Awoken By An Ostrich

Every Tuesday and Thursday evening, I babysit my friend Sarah's 4 young children. One of the millions of toys at their house is a little electronic mat that plays almost every animal sound known to man. Yesterday, while the babies were sleeping, Addy was flinging her animal figurines across the room, and Tommy was playing video games, I was idly playing the "Which animal is this??" game on the mat. One of the noises was the exact same noise my alarm clock makes, minus other birds in the background.

My alarm clock is probably 12 years old now, but it's pretty cool in that your alarm can be either a rooster, a boat horn (BAD AUGH), or a presumably rainforest-dwelling bird with backup vocals from other birds. The bird has been my choice for these 12 years; it's not too loud, but not too quiet, either.

So when I heard this bird call coming from the mat, first my body said "TIME TO WAKE UP!!" and I thought YAY it was all a dream! Then reality came back. After guessing the wrong bird, I switched the mat off the game mode and desperately jabbed at all the different little birds, looking for the owner of my wake up call. Unable to find it, I then poked every animal in order. Was my bird not a bird at all? Finally, I hit the right one.